Internet Safety

These days, you probably give out your personal information to websites on a regular basis and feel comfortable doing so. Anything you register for requires at minimum an email address and a password. Once you have given out that information to a website, you have zero control over it. If that website gets hacked, what information have you provided to the hackers simply by registering there?

Consider the users of that terrible website Ashley Madison. A lot of data was compromised. Some of the site members had used work email addresses, a lot of those email addresses had their full names clearly visible.. Now you might say – those people deserved what they got. I could argue both sides of that case.

The Bigger Point Is –

What will happen if a website that you use regularly gets hacked? What information of yours will suddenly be available to the dark web?

In years gone by, I spent some time in email inboxes of the Nigerian Scammers. Law enforcement would hand over seized email accounts so that we could contact and warn the scam victims contained inside. I learned how to use the information provided inside those accounts to identify other email accounts the scammers were using so those accounts could also be seized. I learned to search the web for phone numbers, fax numbers, names, phrases used.

I can tell you how easy it is to follow the breadcrumbs that people leave online because I have done it many times myself. Sometimes it seemed to me to be like unpicking a thread sewn into the web – this email account leads to that email account which leads to that online dating profile which leads to this Facebook profile which gave me their mobile phone number and searching for that gave me 5 other email addresses that scammer is using.

Below you will find my top 10 tips for protecting yourself from hackers online.

You will absolutely be doing at least one of these things I mention below right now. I’m not saying quit doing that, or go and undo everything you have ever done. I’m saying going forward from now on- for your own safety – you might want to reconsider doing these things.

1. Do Not Use Your Real Last Name

Never. Not ever. Not on Facebook. Not on Linked In. Not on any website. Not on your blog. Keep your real life separated from your online life. There are a lot of great reasons to do this and they far outweigh any reasons you might want to use your real last name online.

You might pick a last name from a favourite character in a book or TV show. You might choose a colour, a word in another language, the name of an animal – but not a pet name! I recommend you avoid using your pets names online, not even for secret questions and especially not for passwords!

It is easy for people to ask you – what is the name of your pet – and if you have used it as your secret question they might have everything they need to get into your email account, depending on what email service you are using.

If you have used your real last name on Facebook, you can change it and I suggest you do so as a matter of urgency. Their “name standards” might say “The name you use should be your authentic identity” – that is all very well but not especially realistic given the world we now live in. You can add a hyphen and another word to the end of your name if you prefer. EG Sipowicz-Simone

Alternatively, if you do want to use your real last name on Facebook – let that be the ONLY place that you use it. Some people use their middle name as their last name – I frown on that concept a little but if it suits you, to each their own. :) How to change your name on Facebook.

2. Avoid Using Your Real First Name

This one I am a little more relaxed about – if you want to go by your first name online, on your blog, Facebook and Linked in, that is cool. But when you are signing up for mailing lists on websites, I usually do not recommend using your first name in that venue.

First up, the company is going to use your supplied first name mercilessly in their mailings to you. It is a lot more fun to go into your inbox and see “Hi Tiger, blah blah” “Hello Snake, blah blah” “Good Morning Bat, blah blah”

Secondly, if a hacker hacks in to the company, they can’t do a lot with Tiger Sipowicz or Snake Morgan or Bat Sorenson. Especially if you are not using that name on Facebook, Linked In, etc.

Thirdly, this is the chance you have been waiting for! You can give yourself that first name you always wanted, like Veronica, Natasha, or Beyonce. Using an Alias or a Pseudonym online is perfectly fine and sensible.

3. Do Not Use Your Real Address

Your first and last names, your home address and your birthdate are four key pieces of information that identity thieves need to steal your identity.

If you can, use a PO box for your mailing address. This means nobody can steal your mail, and you have a non-street address you can use for the web. Nobody is going to rock up at your PO Box as a surprise to yourself unless you have done something truly terrible to them. If you’ve given out your street address, people know where you *live*.

4. Do Not Use An Email With Identifying Info

Workplaces tend to use firstname.lastname for email addresses which if you think about it, that is a very stupid concept. They’ve given people more information than they need about you when you simply send them an email. If you have a Facebook account with that same name, you have a linked-in account or use your name on your blog, people can find out more about you just by searching.

For email online, you want to use a name that has nothing at all to do with you personally. I’m going to give you a new option for firstname.lastname which you can try if you like. Animal Name, Colour, Number. So you might have an email address like TigerBlue99 or SnakePink888.

NEVER use your work email address to register for a website. Some people found that out the hard way with the Ashley Madison hack. BE CAREFUL which email address you use on Facebook – do not use the same one you used for signing up on websites.

5. Choose Good Passwords

The better your password, the more protected you are. Never use pet names, birth dates, names of your family or partner, or any piece of personal information that someone could gather from your Facebook or other accounts online.

I recommend similar to the email name, you choose two different words and at least 3 numbers. Always make the first letter of each word a capital. But how will I remember that, Snoskred? Me personally I suggest a small paper notebook that you can keep somewhere safe and write them down, or use a spreadsheet or text file which you also password protect.

NEVER, EVER, NOT EVER, use the password for the email account you sign up with as the password on that website. Take for example the British Gas customers – if one of them used one password for every site on the web, the hackers can now get into their email account.

My advise is to use a two layer password system – use one password for your email account ONLY, and use another passwords for every other site. Whether that is one password for all the other sign ups you use, or a new password for every single site, that is up to you.

If you do use just one password for all other sites, I would suggest using different usernames, so that if a hacker got your password for Kmart, they can’t go to Woolworths and type in the same username and password. You could make the usernames different by just one number – eg TigerBlue87, TigerBlue88, TigerBlue89.

6. Be Careful With Your Birthdate

I personally use a fake birth date online. Your birth date is one of the key pieces of information identity thieves need to pretend to be you. Change at least one of the details – whether it be year, month, or day.

7. Be Careful With Your Bank Info

All that a scammer needs to create a fake cheque – also known as check or bank draft – is your name, BSB and account number. If you have the funds in your account, the payment WILL clear. It won’t be until you notice the money missing that you will know your details are being used in this way.

All that a scammer needs to deposit stolen or fraudulent funds into your bank account is your BSB and account number.

8. Remove Or Falsify Facebook Info

Just because Facebook asks for information from you does not mean you should provide it. Information I would not want to list on my Facebook would include – my phone number – my real full name – my real address – my postcode – which school I went to – where I am originally from – my current relationship status – where I was born.

Go and take a look at your profile and think – does this need to be here, or does it make it easy for people to know TOO much about me? Also consider this – do you have any of these things set as answers to secret questions somewhere on the web? EG the name of your primary school, your postcode, pet names, etc. Then do the same thing for other “profiles” you have on the web.

9. Search Yourself

Search engines can show you exactly what other people could find out about you online. I suggest you regularly search for your real name, address, email address and phone numbers. In fact you might want to set up google alerts for these things.

10. Use Prepaid Credit Cards Online

There are a lot of very good reasons to use prepaid credit cards online, but here are just a few –

– they do not require you to provide your name or address in most situations – thus making it easier to use a fake name and PO Box with websites.

– you control how much money is on them, so if your card number is stolen the damage will be limited to the amount you have prepaid onto it

– If the website is hacked, all the hackers will have is “Valued Cardholder” and a card number, plus the fake details you may have provided. This means only limited damage can be done. If you have given a website your name and your visa card with a $10,000 limit – and that website is hacked – criminals could run up a huge sum on your card before you can blink an eyelid. Plus you’ll have to cancel that credit card and get a new one.

There are plenty of different prepaid cards available in Australia now, you can likely pick one up when you do your grocery shopping. The Australia Post Load and Go one is pretty decent if you have any travel plans coming up. All of them will have some kind of costs involved but those costs are worth it when you consider the risks of using your own personal card online.

Guidelines

As I said at the start of this post, these are just some general guidelines I would recommend for consideration. Everyone has to live their life their own way, to each their own. Nobody wants to have their identity stolen – you may not know this but identity theft can be an enormous problem for years upon years if that happens to you.

One thing is very clear – we can no longer trust companies and websites to protect our information, so our only option is to be more careful with it.

Over to you –

I received a new scam email today – I’m posting it here because when I search for LCN Company and LCN Team, the search results do not mention anything about scams. Hopefully this post will bullet to the front page for those particular terms and help people contacted by this company to know this is a scam.

Administrative Assistant is available today for full and partial position.

LCN Company is a worldwide goods retailer that is why your general tasks will be connected with sales customer support for operations held in Australia: keep the data of all the deals and orders payment; cope with customers in USA, Eastern Europe and Asia; give all the necessary service and support to our selling department.

You will be paid up to 3800 AUD per month plus bonuses for the part-time position and for full-time position – 5800 AUD per month plus addition.
We have a trial period, during this period you will be trained and guided. This period is also paid.

Minimum Requirements are easy. You just need to have computer with access to the Internet, also Excel skills (the software must be pre-installed), interpersonal and communication skills.

Interested prospects should respond directly to this email address. Our company will certainly contact you at our earliest convenience.

Have a great day!
Hawn Ferne
LCN Team.

They are using many different names with @outlook.com email addresses – anyone can sign up for free email at outlook.com – Also they seem to have a couple of urls now – lcnwork.com and email addresses used for further emails are using that domain name – lcn-premium.com, lcnjob.com, lcnrecruit.com and now lcn-hr.com are also being used by these same scammers.

Update 21/08/15 –

They are now using gmx.com email addresses. This is another place anyone can sign up for free email addresses.

Update 16/09/2015

They are now using the name RNT as well as LCN.

Mega Important Note!!

If you got this email from a different name and email address, please leave a comment asap, you can use a fake name and email address to post the comment if you like. I’ll regularly add in other names and emails used in to the post. It will help other people who are searching for the names. Thanks everyone who leaves a comment, it WILL stop people from getting scammed. :)

Second Mega Important Note –

DO NOT OPEN THE ATTACHMENT if you replied and they send you a second email with an attachment! If you did open an attachment, you must run a virus scanner and malware scanner ASAP. There are many different virus scanning programs out there, you probably have one you like to use, just make sure it is the LATEST version!!! and that it is up to date.

Update – I’ve had two different people look at the files (safely because that is hugely important!) and it looks like they do not contain any nasties. Even so, you want to run antivirus and malware scanners, just to be on the safe side.

Keep Yourself Safe –

It is hugely important in future to remember – *never* open an attachment from someone you do not personally know. For me that means people I have actually met in the flesh.

Also, keeping internet browsers and phone apps up to date, using an anti-virus program, and keeping your anti-virus program up to date is important as well.

Using things like SMS verification for internet banking can be a good thing, too. ;)

I gave them my bank account details?

If you gave them the account name, BSB and account number, they can easily print fake cheques with that information. You definitely need to speak to your bank about this ASAP.

In this particular instance, you may find they deposit a sum into your account – or they may send your account a payment from a stolen credit card. If that happens, DO NOT touch that money, because eventually the bank will reverse that payment. It may take some time – in some cases 6 months to a year – but it *will* happen eventually and you will have to repay that amount of money to the bank.

If it were my bank details, I would close that account as a matter of great urgency. Speak to your bank as soon as you can, and they will likely advise you to do that.

I would advise anyone caught out by this scam to make a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman. The scam victim may be able to sort out a deal with the bank where the bank pays some – or all – of the losses.

Don’t Tell Them!

It seems these scammers are using a template from LMP Company and they have switched names because the very first result for LMP Company now leads to scamwarners.

So – please – do not tell scammers that their company name is listed here or anywhere else on the web as a scam – it will take them mere seconds to change their fake details and their new details will not be easily searchable for any future victims to find.

All you have to say is that you know this is a scam – you do not have to tell them how you know.

Wait! I think I’m being scammed!

Did you receive this email and reply to it? This is a fake job scam. There is no job. Most likely, you will be sent a fraudulent check, and they will want you to send them money because your bank will clear the check at first.

Check? – Cheque? – Bank Draft?

These are all names for the same thing – the name used depends on which country you live in. I use the term check here on the blog because check is the most commonly used spelling in the USA, and people in the USA are the most targeted for these job scams.

If you have banked a check from them –

but you still have the money and have not sent it anywhere – PUT THAT MONEY BACK IN YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW. Do not send any money via Western Union or Moneygram.

If you have banked a check from them –

And you have sent the money via Western Union or Moneygram, then you may wish to seek legal advice. I strongly suggest that you do so as a matter of urgency, because..

In the USA, scam victims can be arrested for banking a fraudulent check.

See this article – Check from a scammer bounces victim into jail – Even the FTC in the US gives out incorrect information re check scams – they say “The bottom line is that until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been deposited into your account, you are responsible for any funds you withdraw against that check.”

This is UNTRUE –

even if the bank confirms the funds have been deposited, the bank can undo the transaction at any time when they discover the check was stolen or fraudulent – even up to a year after they “cleared” it. But you did not know this, and nobody ever tells anyone this.

This is not your fault – it is the fault of the banks, who hide this fact deep within the terms and conditions booklet that you receive when you open an account – these terms and conditions you have agreed to abide by when you opened your account.

If you are not willing to seek legal advice, the only advice I can personally provide to you is to print out all the emails you received and the emails you sent, print out that page from the Federal Trade Commission and keep it somewhere safe for if/when the police eventually turn up on your doorstep.

but be aware –

and I want to make this very clear –

You will have to pay this money back to the bank eventually. The sooner you make arrangements to do this, the better.

Please Leave A Comment

If you have been in contact with these scammers, telling others about your experience, so that they can know they are not alone.

What Now? Any Questions?

If you need further advice, or have questions about this post – please leave a comment on this post, or you can use the contact form to get in touch with me.

Update – The Next Email They Send –

We would like to offer position of Administrative Assistant at our company. Please, find more information about us and this position below.

LCN is a leading distributor of finest designer goods. Currently it is one of the most important specializing in online sales. With more than 5 years of experience in the designer goods industry. We offer a continuous renovation in our collections, following the latest trends in each country and season, thus satisfying the demand of clients. We always keep in mind that prices are an important factor when it comes to sales.

We are looking for a responsible person in Australia who will be ready to incur all necessary activities. Our candidate should be highly motivated. We believe that the experience is not the most important thing. The key to success is a fresh look and bold ideas!

The main duties of Administrative Assistant:

– Helping Entity’s Sales Department as a special projects support
– Data entry and other functions as specified in the instruction
– Running reports for all completed deals and wire transfers
– Providing overall administrative maintenance such as making of letters, processing purchase orders and transaction reports etc.
– Emailing correspondence every day

Hours: Full-time or part-time schedule possible. Your schedule can be irregular. For a part time variant – you will spend 3 hours per day average, from Monday to Friday.

Salary: Essential pay for a part time job is 840AUD on a weekly basis
plus 5 percent commission. Full-time job pay is 1300AUD on a weekly basis plus commission.

You will be on Probation period for your first month.

I’m sending you Application Form and short presentation of LCN(you can find it attached to this email). You can find full job description in the brochure(pages: 5,6,7). Please read it carefully, complete and send it back to me via email or by fax +1-832-218-1671. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Main information:
I have seen your CV on job board site and we think that you are perfect candidate for us. Our advertising company, which carries out the orders for international company’s agents, regional business and government organisations, would like to offer you post of Service Manager. If you are interested in collaboration with a strong leadership team, evolving our products and a group that looks more like close friends than colleagues, then this employment is just for you! Adaptable timing is possible.

Requirements are:
High School education necessary. Must have Computer and Internet
access, Microsoft Office or compatible. Must have proper writing and social skills.

If you are interested, please write to us at: nkigae1971@mail.com .
Thank you for your attention!

And Another Email –

Main information:
I found your Summury on job board site and we think that you are perfect candidate for us. Our advertising company, which carries out the orders for international company’s agents, regional business and government organisations, would like to offer you the position of Service Manager. If you are interested in cooperation with a strong leadership team, evolving our products and a group that looks more like close friends than colleagues, then this employment is just for you! Adaptable timing is possible.

Conditions:
High School education necessary. Must have Computer and Internet, Microsoft Office or compatible. Must have proper writing and social skills.

If you are interested, please reach us at: sorelyhotchar@hotmail.com .

Jobseeker Update

The team at Jobseeker have been in contact re yesterdays post and have advised they will be making this issue a high priority. For anyone at other websites who might be reading this, it is important to know the following fact –

Once you put some hurdles in their way, scammers will stop using your site as a place to advertise their scams. Other sites have been there and done this. However if you do not act quickly and decisively, these scammers will spread the word to their scammer friends and you will be inundated with scammer postings.

Reach Out –

You can contact me via email – or comment on this post. I strongly suggest you to do this if you have any questions. You do not have to use your real name but I do ask that you use a real email address so that I can reply to your question personally via email.

If you arrived here searching for companies or text in these scam job postings, it is important to know – you are not the only one who arrived here this way and you are not alone.

Every morning, the first email account I check is the one associated with my Contact page. And this morning, among the regular multitude of I am being scammed what do I do now emails, I was presented with a doozy of an email.. It went like this –

I was lured into this Rockstar money scam, they sent me two checks for $2,300 each and I cashed the checks, I did not deposit them, they then asked to send 1,900 through money gram and I did and now I don’t know what to do! I’m scared! My parents will kill me when they find out! I’m only 16!

I replied right away asking the person to contact Moneygram and see if the money has been collected yet – if it has not, they can cancel the transfer and then they could potentially get the money back.

However, anyone who has watched some Judge Judy in their lifetime knows that a minor cannot enter into a contract. So in order to be able to advise this person I really need more info, eg how did they cash the checks, and how did they send the money via moneygram?

In any case, this young person is going to have to tell their parents. As difficult as that might seem, the parents are actually the people best placed to assist – they will likely have knowledge of the local laws and will know who to speak to in order to try and sort all this out.

Their child has been scammed, and they will be likely to react as a lion does, roaring and on the attack – not towards the child but towards the people who have scammed their child, and also the people who have assisted the scammers in this instance – the check cashing place, and the Moneygram office which allowed a minor to send money.

I do not know how a check cashing place cashes a check when being shown the ID of a person under 18. When they cashed the check their details would have been noted and/or their ID was photocopied. The check cashing place will be the first to find out the check is fraudulent and will probably involve the police, which is something both the young person and the parents will want to avoid.

So my best advice to this young person is to talk to their parents ASAP. Then let the parents take over – the parents may wish to seek legal advice regarding the best way to handle this situation. If the parents make good the money to the check cashing place or come to some kind of settlement with them, it may be possible to avoid the police being involved.

The Rockstar scam is an example of the Car Wrap scam – where the scammers want people to wrap their vehicles in advertising. I’m presently involved in scam baiting one of these scammers who had the hide to post their scam on a local community group that I am a member of. I’m going to post the initial email here in case anyone else is being scammed by these people –

Hello,

Wrap advertising is the marketing practice of completely or partially covering (wrapping) a vehicle in an advertisement or livery, thus turning it into a mobile billboard. This can be achieved by simply painting the vehicle surface, but it is becoming more common today to use large vinyl sheets as decals. These can be removed with relative ease, making it much less expensive to change from one advertisement to another. Vehicles with large, flat surfaces, such as buses and light-rail carriages, are fairly easy to work with, though smaller cars with curved surfaces can also be wrapped in this manner. Wrap advertising is available to anybody irrespective of the vehicle you drive.

We are currently seeking to employ individuals in the United States of America. How would you like to make money by simply driving your car or banner wrapped for PepsiCo. Drink®

How it works?
Here’s the basic premise of the “paid to drive” concept: PepsiCo. Drink® seek residents in the United States who are professional drivers to go about their normal routine as they usually do, only with a big advert for “PepsiCo. Drink®” plastered on your car. The ads are typically vinyl decals, also known as “auto wraps,”that almost seem to be painted on the vehicle, and which will cover any portion of your car’s exterior surface.

Don’t Have a Car?
If you don’t have a car, you can also participate if you have a bike.

What does the company get out of this type of ad strategy?
Lots of exposure and awareness. The auto wraps tend to be colorful, eye-catching and attract lots of attention. Plus, it’s a form of advertising with a captive audience,meaning people who are stuck in traffic can’t avoid seeing the wrapped car alongside them. This program will last for 3 months and the minimum you can participate is a month.

What is the Contract Duration?
Once the wrap has been installed, minimum term is 4 weeks and maximum is 12 weeks.

Would the wrap/decal damage the paint of my car?
The decal doesn’t damage the paint of car and will be removed by our representative once the contract expire. We will be responsible for installation and removal of the wrap.

You will be compensated with $300.00 per week which is essentially a “rental”payment for letting our company use the space and no fee is required from you. PepsiCo. Drink® shall provide experts that would handle the advert placing on your car. You will receive an upfront payment of $300.00 in form of a check via courier service for accepting to carry this advert on your car.

It is very easy and simple no application fees required. Get back with the following details if you are interested in this offer.

A quick note of apology to my regular readers – my apologies for the recent postings in regards to scams. I know these may be somewhat boring to read.

These particular scams are huge at the moment and each and every day, hundreds of people find my website by searching for text contained in these emails or by searching for email addresses, names and contact numbers used by these scammers. For example, if you search on Google for one of the companies I posted about recently, this is what you get –

This is super awesome because it means anyone searching for that company will know it is a scam once they click through and read my post about it.

Many people view just that one page which gave them the search result, and then vanish without commenting or contacting me. So if you got here searching for Pepsico, please do not leave without contacting me or commenting below. You are not alone in being scammed, so let the others arriving here know they are not alone, too.

Thank you so much to the person who sent me more details. Since I posted about this the other day, a large amount of people have arrived here after searching for Manheimy PTY LTD reviews or company details or has anyone worked for Manheimy and even is Manheimy a scam..

There is a real and legitimate company named Manheim – the scammers sometimes will use a real company name just slightly changed.

They are using the email address – realonlinejobs@gmail.com

Here is the email they send to people.

——————————————————————-
Hi,
An online Home Based Worker position requires that you have a reliable computer with constant Internet access and capabilities, a valid E-mail account, basic Internet knowledge, and minimal typing skills.

You must also be able to conduct yourself in a professional manner. This includes having excellent grammar and spelling when communicating with clients via E-mail.

In addition to the above requirements, you MUST be able to follow /instructions closely and completely! You will do all contact via E-mail, so you will not be required to call anyone at anytime. This allows you to work whichever hours are most convenient for you (days, night, or weekends). You will be processing applications, as well as
filling out forms in specific company databases (this tends to be tedious at times, so please be sure that you have the patience to do so before proceeding.

This is why you will need to have basic Internet knowledge, though the training provided will give you step-by-step instructions on how to perform these tasks properly.

There are no “down-times” with this position, so you will have a constant flow of work to complete. THIS IS NOT A GET RICH QUICK SCHEME, so if that is what you are looking for please do not pursue this opportunity. You will be paid $50 for each application completed.

The amount of money you make each week is entirely up to you, and how much time and effort you are willing to put in with this position. The average person makes $2500-$12000 each week.

When you have been accepted as a Home Based employee, you are considered an Independent Contractor.

This means that your taxes will not be taken out; therefore, you will not be provided with any tax forms. THIS IS ENTIRELY YOUR RESPONSIBILITY. The training provided will go more in depth about what to do with your taxes.

You will receive your pay through PayPal or whichever online payment portal you choose. When an application is completed, $50 will be credited to your PayPal account, which can be withdrawn into your bank account at your leisure. You can read about the security policies https://paypal.com.

There is a one-time 60-days money back guarantee.fee for the training package in case you do not like the job. This also includes all the administration processing fees and training costs. We offer professional online support for as long as you may need us.

This is a one-time fee, and there will be no other charges to you. However, the fee must be received before you can gain access to the “Training Materials.

We must accept this fee to cover training costs, processing fees, as well as to ensure that only serious applicants apply. This is a /non-refundable fee, so be sure that you understand what you are doing before sending in your payment for the training Guides.

This fee will not be waived for anyone, and cannot be deducted from /your first pay. This is because if you do not process applications, you will not have a first pay, and we will have already taken the time to set you up, and train you. Once your payment is received, you will be given immediate access to your training Guides.

You will need a word processing program in order to perform this position successfully (MS Word, Works, Notepad, etc.) Once you have received the training materials, you can START working from home TODAY.

Most applicants typically complete the training within 24 hours or /less. However, you can do this at your leisure.

Keep in mind that the sooner you go through the training materials, the sooner you will START earning money. I will be able to be /contacted via E-mail at anytime after you have received your training materials to help you, or answer any questions you may have.

If you are serious about this position, meet all the requirements, and are responsible enough to work from home, then please contact me via E-mail and I will inform you of the cost of the training packet, and how to set up a PayPal account to send the fee (if you do not already have an account).

You seem like an excellent candidate for this position, and I hope that I hear from you again so I can get you STARTED right away!

Sincerely,

Ms Adrienne D. Evans

Human Resources
——————————————————————-

So, 2500 a week divided by 50 – you would have to process 50 applications. 12000 a week divided by 50 – you would have to process 240 applications. Seems legit, NOT!

Plus, in this very email – the fee you pay has a money back guarantee – and then it is not refundable. Hmm.

What Is The Scam?

In this case it seems like they are looking for people to pay them a fee in order to be “trained” – This is an excellent way to get a small amount of money from a large amount of people, and once a victim financially invests in a scam like this, they are much less likely to walk away from it.

My one hope with this scam is, not too many people will pay this upfront fee.

Paypal Scams –

They could also be looking to get your credit card details by sending you to a fake Paypal website. NEVER click on a Paypal link sent to you via email. Always type paypal.com into your location bar in your browser. In fact never click on a link sent to you in your email. Always type in the website yourself. :)

It is also possible that they may send fake checks to people in order to cover this “fee”. They might say that a client owes them money and could the job applicant process the check through their bank account.

Checks are also known as cheques or bank drafts, depending where you live, but we will call them checks for ease of calling them just one thing.

The check will at first clear. That is because the info on the check is legit, likely stolen from a company who put their details online. Later, and it could be up to a year later, the details will be found to be stolen and the company will ask the bank to reverse that check, and the scam victim will suddenly be without that money.

If you want to see some fake checks, visit this post – Snoskred made 5 MILLION DOLLARS online this year! – for more info on internet scams, see this post – Internet Safety & Scams – What You Need To Know.

Keep in mind the golden rule –

NO MONEY IS COMING TO YOU AS A SURPRISE VIA YOUR EMAIL INBOX.

I may update this post with further emails when I receive them. :)

What Should People Do Now?

If you are in contact with this company, stop emailing them. If they will not stop emailing you, try sending them this – just copy and paste it from here –

—————————
I am now aware that this is not a legitimate job and that you are trying to scam me.
Do not email me anymore – I have reported your emails to the local police and I will send any further emails directly to them. Do not mail me anything – I will not accept any deliveries that you send to me.

Leave me alone!
—————————

Be aware they may pass your email address onto other scammers, so you may see other scams coming to you via your inbox. There are so many different and varied scams, there is no way I can warn you about all the possibilities.

Just remember that golden rule above, and hit delete. If you think something might be legit, you can forward it on to me at snoskred {at} gmail {dot} com and I will check into it for you. If you receive too many scams, it might be worth changing your email account.

What If I Receive A Fake Check?

DO NOT BANK IT.

Please contact me in the event that this occurs, and I will advise you further. If possible I will ask you to send me a photo of the check so I can try and warn the company or people named on it, and I will contact the bank involved as well.

Please Leave A Comment!

Did you arrive here searching for Manheimy PTY LTD? Can you tell us how you found this company, or how they found you? Do you have any other emails from them?

I receive an email every day from Jobseeker, which is an Australian job search website. Todays email contained this position for Manheimy PTY LTD –

On clicking through this is what I saw – however the job has already been removed from Jobseeker. Yes, this job is a scam! FYI nobody pays $50 an hour for admin work. It would be lovely if they did, but nobody does.

This would more than likely be another fake cheque scam job, as seen here – Snoskred made 5 million dollars online this year! – the only reason I am posting about it is because people will be searching for this company and not finding anything that tells them it is a scam.

people have arrived here searching for – is connected sky business assistant job a scam?

Many people will not be scammed thanks to that post.. :)

Thank you to the brave person who emailed me about this – it takes great bravery to speak up about these things, because so many people make assumptions about scam victims. They are being scammed by criminals. That is the only assumption we need to make about them.

That person emailed me yesterday asking

Why do you do all this?

That is a really good question. Here is my answer.

Because I deeply believe that nobody should be scammed.

I can’t always stop people from being scammed, but the least I can do is put the word out there and hope that people find my site before they bank the check.

I also believe the banks should take their share of responsibility with these fake check scams.

Banks have everything they need to figure out the check is fraudulent, yet they choose not to figure it out, and they often tell customers “the check has cleared” – and take zero responsibility when it “unclears”.

Customers trust their bank and rely on the advice they are given – that the check is real, and that is has cleared.

People assume if the check “clears” it must be fine, because they believe that banks have done some homework as a part of this clearing process and the bank has checked to see if the account exists and if the funds are there.

What people do not know is –

banks can bounce a check up to a YEAR after they have “cleared” it.

If the banks were the ones to lose the money, you betcha they’d stop allowing checks at all – or they would do their homework and make sure the check was real. Banks have hidden clauses in the terms and conditions that you as a customer agreed to which mean if a check is found to be stolen or fraudulent, then the funds go back to the bank and YOU the customer loses out on those funds.

However those terms and conditions and the fact that banks will not take any financial responsibility for clearing a check and then unclearing it means that banks are essentially partners in this crime and they are enabling the scammers to get away with this.

I have seen people get a letter in writing from the bank to state that the check has cleared and the funds are available, and even that does nothing for them once the check unclears.

I received an email today from someone in the USA who had found my fake check article and wanted to know if they were being scammed. As soon as they told me what was going on, I knew the answer was yes. Luckily, they had not received the check yet, and they will not be depositing it when they do. This scammer will be hearing from me as a surprise, instead..

I asked the scam victim to forward on the emails to me, so that I could post them here – this way any other potential victims can find these details and know right away that it is a scam.

Scammer Email #1

If you are organized and honest, you can make three hundred dollars
($350) (3) a week, as a business assistant.Reply for more details .

Please all replies should be forwarded to donaldcraig18820@gmail.com

And please include your phone number.

Thanks
Donald Craig

Warning Signs #1

So, let us take a quick look at the clues here which point to this being a scam.

1. Donald Craig is emailing from one address (diesel@mail.wowway.com) and asking people to reply to a different address (donaldcraig18820@gmail.com) – Scammers do this because there is a very good chance the email address they are spamming people from will be closed down.

2. There is no name or email address in the To field. This gives the sign it is being blasted to multiple email accounts at the same time.

3. You can make three hundred dollars ($350) Scammer Email #2

From: Donald Criag (1) <donaldcraig18820@gmail.com>

Hello {NAME},

Thank you for your reply.

Here is a brief overview of who we are and what we do. We are a Europe (2) based company, offering business consultancy services to numerous clients across the globe like auditing, accounting, investment counsels and particularly offshore incorporation services. You can read more about us below:

Snoskred deleted the link as these sites can sometimes contain malware and simply will say Connected Sky is the name of the website.

With an increase in our customers from different parts of the globe, the expansion of the company has made it essential in recent times to employ part-time representatives (reps) in different geographic locations where we render service. The current expansion is what has created job opportunities like this for people like you.

We currently have 12 agents i.e. certified accountants in the United States AND CANADA (3) working for the company. These agents periodically require materials like envelopes, files and stamps to carry out their daily job.
They shall email you whenever they need these materials and also state precisely which type of materials and the quantity they shall need.

Your job as a ‘rep’ is to contact the supplier through email to make orders for the materials requested for and also state the quantity that should be mailed to the agents address through post. (A standard supplier has been contracted to be making available these materials)

An agent can only order for materials once a week.

It has become quite untidy having 12 different agents, contacting different suppliers at different times for materials. It has not brought about accurate accountability for (ConnectedSky). We are employing you so all agents place their order with one person- You, and the supplier gets the orders placed, from that same person- You.
Having an employee like this in place would bring about precise accountability for the company, as we get to know what is been ordered and what is been supplied, and plus it saves us time. You shall be keeping a record of what an agent orders, and also a record of what you ask the supplier to provide. (Of course the logs have to match, as you are expected to ask from the supplier only what the agents’ demand).

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (ConnectedSky) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!.

Salary/wages payment: $350 weekly will be paid to you in form of cheque.

Just like we said, it is a flexible online/ ’work from home’ job compatible even with undergraduates as it does not require having a college degree, so long as you are computer literate, you have an email and you can keep records.

Agents will only contact you for materials during the weekdays.

We will always email you guidelines and instructions to follow in getting your job done perfectly when you start working.

If you still care to proceed with the job, get back to us with your information listed below then we can proceed from there.

And please include your phone number and all replies should be forwarded to this email

And you can reach me on this number 7072603466

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards,

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #2

So what clues have we been provided in this email?

1. Donald Criag – most people know how to spell their own name. If it is mis-spelled, chances are, this is not their real name.

2. Europe is not a country. Real companies would say they are based in COUNTRY not CONTINENT. EG We are based in Germany.

3. Capital letters as a surprise out of nowhere are a dead giveaway.

4. The part with 1, NAME: – if you ever receive an email that asks you to supply details in that kind of format, you can be certain that it is a scam. No legit employer would ever ask for your details in this manner.

5. Please all replies should be forwarded to blank? Forget to put something in there, did you, scammer?

If you go to the supplied website, it looks legit until you do some googling and then you discover that other sites out there have the exact same text.

Google A Line Of Text

Taking lines of text from this email and searching for them can be quite interesting. For example this line –

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (ConnectedSky) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

comes back with these results – and you’ll quickly note the brackets contain many and varied company names within the exact same sentence –

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (sovereigngroup Ltd) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (HI Audit Kyriacou & Partners) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by (Global Consultants) to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO!

Please note that all costs of supplies, shall be handled by the company, and at no time whatsoever shall you be asked by C&N to pay any charges or hidden fees- NO! – in this case there are no brackets, this scammer is likely the one who wrote the “script” to begin with.

What Script?

Scammers work on a script. When one of their gang finds the script to be successful, they will pass it on to other gang members who will use it – just changing their name, email address, phone numbers and the company name.

Scammer Email #3

Hello {name},

Thank you for the reply.

Your Details have been taken down and passed over to the admin. They have processed and reviewed your application so you can begin work immediately.

Please be informed that you will be working as the company’s representative in your location. Nothing hectic, as your recruit manager I’ll be giving you guidance every step of the way and attending to your every question until you get the complete hang of it.

Secondly, at this juncture I need to know through which channel, would you prefer receiving your salary- via check or via direct deposit?

We usually recommend paying via check, and I advise you select that also. As a straightforward and transparency principle, this way we can keep the working relationship as open and as simple as possible. (It is also via cheque (1) payments that the company shall fund you the money needed for ordering materials, which you shall pay to the supplier).

Note that your first salary shall be prepaid, (2) which means that your salary shall be included in the first check you receive and you will be paid as you start. Your salary after that shall be paid weekly, on Fridays.

Lastly, let me know if you can get started this week?

And please include your phone number and all replies should be forwarded to this email

And you can reach me on this number 7072603466 (3)

I will be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards,

Donald Craig

Warning Signs #3

1. Note the two different spellings of check & cheque. It is spelled cheque in my own country but most of the scam victims I speak with are in the USA. I’ve often struggled to make sure I spell it as check myself and I am not trying to scam anyone. :)

2. They are going to give you money for doing nothing? Prepaid salary is not something legitimate jobs do.

3. Why is the phone number on the web site for Cyprus, and this one is for the USA? Both numbers divert to Nigeria, via a redirection service, by the way.

Scammer Email #4

Hello {name},

I got the response from the admin department earlier today and all your details with the company have been entered on there.

Please be notified that the company would be sending you a cheque to the residential address which you provided for you to purchase the necessary materials that our agents have been placing orders for.

The company shall also include in the cheque, your first salary of $350.

Note that your other salaries after this shall be paid at the end of the week- on Fridays.

The cheque shall be forwarded to you via courier and which begins this week Tuesday

Feel free to ask any questions and kindly stay close to your email, as I shall be mailing you at intervals.

Please all replies should be forwarded to (1)

And please include your phone number (2)

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #4

1. Again no email address to forward replies to.

2. You have already provided your phone number, a couple of emails ago.

Scammer Email #5

Hello {name},

Check (1) for the supplier has been mailed out to your address you shall receive it this week Tuesday which is tomorrow.

The Cheque (1) is from one of our clients who is making part payment for auditing and account review services rendered by us. (2) You shall deduct your salary of $350 and pay the supplier the remaining funds.

As soon as you receive the Check, go straight to your bank and deposit the cheque at your bank. You’ll need to enquire from the bank when the funds would be available for withdrawal in 24 hours.

Here is the tracking number UPS.COM {number}

Use it to monitor exactly what time the package would arrive at your address.

Note that the funds would be available for withdrawal or 24/48 hours after you have deposited it into your bank account.

kindly send me me a reply or text me so i will be able to know when the funds would be available so i can get the name and location of the supplier and send them to you.

After you must have received the funds, keep your salary in your bank account (which is $350)

You can text me or call me on my this number (707) 676-3105 (4) to update me on the step after you have gotten back to me with reply from the bank

Would be waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards

DONALD CRAIG

Warning Signs #4

1. Again the check/cheque misspelling.

2. So now you are receiving a payment for the company and processing that via your bank account. Money laundering, anyone?

3. “kindly” is a word the Nigerians use a lot, along with “I will like to” “update me urgently” “compliments of the season” “modalities” and a few other catchphrases.

4. 7072603466 was the number previously given. Now we have a new number? And note it is written differently as well. (707) 676-3105

It was at this point that the scam victim became suspicious and did some googling – and they found my website as a result and sent me an email reaching out for assistance. Thank the deities, they will not be scammed. But for every one person who reaches out, there are thousands of people who do get scammed.

The Only Answer

Banks need to stop allowing checks / cheques / bank drafts. Full stop, end of story. There is no reason in these days of electronic funds transfer for this form of payment to be used. Allowing it simply allows the scammers to get away with these scams – especially when the bank is often a willing participant, telling people checks have cleared when they can bounce up to a year later!

Until then, you have to protect yourself, and here is the best advice I have seen on this subject – though I have added a rule #7 just to make things perfectly clear.

How To Avoid Fake Job Scams

“Rules to follow” to avoid most fake jobs:
1) Job asks you to use your personal bank account and/or open a new one.
2) Job asks you to print/mail/cash a check or money order.
3) Job asks you to use Western Union or moneygram in any capacity.
4) Job asks you to accept packages and re-ship them on to anyone.
5) Job asks you to pay visas, travel fees via Western Union or moneygram.
6) Job asks you to sign up for a credit reporting or identity verification site.7. Job asks you to deposit a check into your personal account.

Avoiding all jobs that mention any of the above listed ‘red flags’ and you will miss nearly all fake jobs. Only scammers ask you to do any of the above. No. Exceptions. Ever. For any reason.

Wait! I’m being scammed by Connected Sky

Did you find this post searching for something like “is connectedsky business assistant job a scam” – the answer to that question is yes – this is a scam. There is no job. You will be sent a fraudulent check, and they want you to send them money because your bank will clear the check at first.

If you have banked a check from them –

but you still have the money and have not sent it anywhere – PUT THAT MONEY BACK IN YOUR BANK RIGHT NOW. Do not send any money via Western Union or Moneygram.

If you have banked a check from them –

And you have sent the money via Western Union or Moneygram, then you may wish to seek legal advice. I strongly suggest that you do so as a matter of urgency, because..

In the USA, scam victims can be arrested for banking a fraudulent check.

Even the FTC in the US gives out incorrect information re check scams – they say “The bottom line is that until the bank confirms that the funds from the check have been deposited into your account, you are responsible for any funds you withdraw against that check.”

This is UNTRUE –

even if the bank confirms the funds have been deposited, the bank can undo the transaction at any time when they discover the check was stolen or fraudulent – even up to a year after they “cleared” it. But you did not know this, and nobody ever tells anyone this.

If you are not willing to seek legal advice, the only advice I can personally provide to you is to print out all the emails you received and the emails you sent, print out that page from the Federal Trade Commission and keep it somewhere safe for if/when the police eventually turn up on your doorstep.

but be aware –

and I want to make this very clear –

You will have to pay this money back to the bank eventually. The sooner you make arrangements to do this, the better.

Please Leave A Comment

If you have been in contact with these scammers, telling others about your experience, so that they can know they are not alone.

Every single day, several people are finding this post by searching for the text, email addresses, phone numbers, or company name contained within this post. If you are one of these people, please comment to let us know what you searched for and what led you here.

If you need further advice, please leave a comment on this post, or use the contact form to get in touch with me.

Some of you would know that I’ve been involved with AKMuckraker and The Mudflats since September, 2008. We’ve been through a lot in the past few years, many stressful situations which we have worked through together as well as the rest of The Mudflats Admin & Moderation team. I consider her to be a good friend.

AKMuckraker (Jeanne Devon) and her good friends Ken Morris and Frank Bailey (A former aide to Governor Palin) have collaborated together on a book. It was released yesterday in the USA.

Also released yesterday were several “tweets” from Rebecca Mansour, a current aide of Sarah Palin.

Though whether she is still an aide remains to be seen – Palin has a habit of throwing people under the bus for much less than Mansour is guilty of.

During the time I have worked with AKMuckraker, there have been times when she has shared confidences with me. Never in a million years would I think to share those with anyone else, not even the admin & mod team, without her express permission. Certainly not with someone I’ve never met whether or not I trusted them.

When someone tells me something and tells me to keep it in the vault, with me, it is LOCKED IN THAT DARNED VAULT and it isn’t coming out until that person tells me otherwise.

Mansour betrayed Sarah and her family, and thoroughly deserves to be thrown under the bus. When someone trusts you and allows you to be a part of their “inner circle” you have a responsibility to keep your mouth firmly zipped..

Even worse – if this is what she was saying to someone she never met, what the heck is she saying to people she knows?

Apparently the person who was tweeting with her had 122 tweets from her which he was willing to sell. The people he ended up giving them to (nobody would buy them) have not shared all of them but you can view the ones they did share here and here.

My personal favourites with the irony in bold –

19:23:35: Listen: I tell you things I wouldn’t tell anyone tho I have press hounding me for the info I tell you. I trust you even tho I’ve never met u

I’ve read through the comments here, and I just have a couple of things to point out.

In the case of AKMuckraker, previous to Doogan outing her, there was no connection between her real life identity, and the identity of AKMuckraker. You couldn’t google and find a link between the two. It simply was not possible.

The actions? Rep Mike Doogan replies to emails in a very inappropriate manner as a matter of course, it seems. But in that case he had collected up 30 or so different email addresses, and then emailed them ALL with the email addresses viewable to everyone. That is a clear breach of the privacy of those people who wrote to him.

Now AKMuckraker had a right to inform people about that, in my opinion. If you write an email to your representative, you expect there to be a level of privacy. Apparently this sent Doogan quite over the edge and began his obsession with her.

He chose to send out her identity in a newsletter to his constituents, many of whom may never have heard of AKMuckraker at all. That is the part which is most inappropriate in my opinion.

There are many reasons people want to remain anonymous on the internet. Alaska is a quite a small place in the scheme of things and like a lot of small towns to have true freedom of speech you don’t want to use your real name.

Other reasons someone might wish to remain anonymous –

* Because it is a standard identity- and privacy-protection precaution
* Because they have experienced online or offline stalking, harassment, or political or domestic violence
* Because they wish to discuss sexual abuse, sexuality, domestic abuse, assault, politics, health, or mental illness, and do not wish some subset of family, friends, strangers, aquaintances, employers, or potential employers to know about it
* Because they wish to keep their private lives, activities, and tastes separate from their professional lives, employers, or potential employers
* Because they fear threats to their employment or the custody of their children
* Because it’s the custom among their Internet cohort
* Because it’s no one else’s business

Bear in mind also – remember Kathy Sierra? Remember Dooce? Remember Abby Lee? What person in their right mind would knowingly put themselves out there for the kind of treatment those people went through?

Would you put your hand up to be fired from your job because of your blog? To receive death threats – and the people sending them know where you live? Who knows how far those people who do not like what you wrote might go?

The bottom of the bottom lines is – AKMuckraker would never have written about Doogan if he were acting in a sane manner. He is the politician who was sending the crazy emails to 30 people at once. If he had been doing the right thing and treating the people who elected him professionally and with respect, AKMuckraker would not have exposed his behavior. And NOTE – It is actually his JOB to listen to what the people are saying, and respond appropriately.

I haven’t had time to collect links today but here are some from yesterday – I would like to highlight these –